Thai Guru's Gold und Silber ... (Informationen und Vermutungen)

March 13 – Gold $445.50 – Silver $7.51

EVIDENCE Of Blatant US Market Deception Builds

"Perhaps the most obvious political effect of controlled news is the advantage it gives powerful people in getting their issues on the political agenda and defining those issues in ways likely to influence their resolution." -- W. Lance Bennett

So much has come my way since Friday’s MIDAS, I felt compelled to publish another one.

Starting off with a query:

Hi Bill:
Any word on the COT report released after the market last night? I would expect huge increases in the commercial short position.

You may wish to tell our readers that the Central Gold Trust Fund (GTU.un) is trading below theoretical value of gold.

With this fund you get gold in a verified vault and the storage of that gold is covered with cash on its balance sheet. The easy way to calculate the fund is to take .0375 oz of gold per share plus .61 dollars per share usa funds.

The other ETF "GLD" security listed on the NYSE has no evidence of any gold in any vault.

Take care
Harvey

Harvey, the COT report released around 3:30 EST on Friday makes me yawn these days it is so predictable. We know the funds are piling in and The Gold Cartel is selling and selling and selling. So are other bullion dealers who know the drill and trade along with their scam. Even the degree of bullion dealer selling and spec longs really doesn’t matter that much anymore. The reason is because of the pathetic repetitive routine The Gold Cartel inflicts on the market over and over again. They draw in the specs on the upside and get shorter and shorter as the dollar sinks. AS the dollar strengthens after sustained weakness, and after the specs have themselves longer and longer by following the gold price rises on the dollar weakness, they move into action. They commence to bomb gold to turn the specs into sellers by triggering sell stops at key moving average points. This is what they did in December. When GLD announced 15 tonnes of gold left their ETF, the cabal pulled out all stops, taking bullion down $20 at one point during a single Comex trading period. It was nothing more than a consorted, orchestrated illegal theft of speculators money, one undertaken in violation of US anti-trust laws. It is what The Goldman Sachs’ and JP Morgan’s do. This is how they record such significant trading profits on a quarterly basis.

The Commercials reduced their longs by 3,226 contracts and increased their shorts by 14,592 contracts. Could have been a lot worse. Of course, since this data was collected last Tuesday, we know the next report will reveal and even greater shift.

One day we will get our Commercial Signal Failure (the Commercials are buried by the speculators) and the bad guys will be routed. It is long overdue.

There is a huge dichotomy out there between what the wants of the US and the wants of Europe:

Iran signs 3bn-euro cooperation protocol with Italy

Rome, March 11, IRNA -- Iran and Italy signed an economic cooperation protocol worth three billion euros here Thursday night, based on which the Italian government is urged to provide Tehran with industrial machinery upon request, in return for Iranian oil.

According to a report by Italy`s ANSA news agency, the protocol was signed by Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce Mohammad-Reza Behzadian and Deputy Head of Milan Chamber of Commerce in Promotion ofInternational Trade Sandro Bicoucci signed the protocol on behalf of the two countries.

The volume of Iran-Italy trade was around four billion euros priorto the signing of the protocol in question.

ANSA`s economic analyst says in the report, "Iran, and important Middle East country, intends to strengthen the foundations of its traditional industries, such as the textile industry, for which it seeks the assistance and modern machinery of leading countries` in the related fields."

The Italian state news agency adds, "Iran is expanding the range of its economic transactions with Italy, and the chambers of commerce of Tehran and Milan play a decisive role in that respect." ANSA has also carried Behzadian`s comments on the issue.

-END-

Bad news for oil bears; good news for gold bulls:

Official: OPEC Has Reached Output Limit

Sat Mar 12, 5:10 PM ET Business - AP

ALGIERS, Algeria - OPEC (news - web sites) has reached its production limit, and trying to stretch output by one million barrels per day isn't likely to lower oil prices, Algeria's minister for energy and mines said.

Chakib Khalil said prices were high because of world economic growth — particularly in the United States and China. Algeria is one of the 11 members of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"OPEC has reached its production limits. It doesn't have much production capacity," he said at the opening of an industrial plant in the western town of Arzew, according to newspaper reports on Saturday.

"If it came to a crunch, it has capacity for one million barrels (more per day), and I don't think a production increase would influence the barrel price," he told reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony.

Crude oil futures prices climbed above $54 a barrel Friday after the International Energy Agency estimated global petroleum demand would grow faster than previously expected in 2005.

-END-

More on the Chinese move to diversify their reserves:

Hello Bill
Hope you are well.

Further to the snippet you placed from Lehman's on the Chinese reserves, i.e. the change in the percentage of dollars they hold from 82% at the end of 2003 to 76% at the end of 2004. That by itself does not look much to be concerned about, but have a look at what it means in absolute terms:

China's reserves at end of 2003 = $403.3 billion. 82% of that in dollar assets = $330.7. At the end of 2004 the reserves were = $609.9. 76% of that in dollar assets = $463.5

The increase in dollar assets during 2004 were $132.8 billion, or just 65 % of the total increase during the year of $203.6 billion

The decline from 82% of reserves to 76% still meant an increase in total dollar assets; it is the fact that at the margin they are down to just 65% of reserves being held in dollars that is important. Wonder what the ratio will be for 2005??

Perhaps Mr. John "There is no evidence we have seen that central banks are changing their portfolio proportions" Taylor of the US Treasury has either been blindfolded or fitted with blinkers. A change from an 82% holding of dollars to adding only 65% at the margin should be visible and significant even to an Econ 101 student.

You might want to enlighten Taylor and Reuters??

Enjoy your weekend.
Daan

The main reason for putting this MIDAS out today is to enhance the theme of Friday’s MIDAS, "Potential For Serious Financial/Real Estate Market Chaos Builds."

The bottom line is the spin program coming out of Wall Street and Washington is completely out of control. The Orwellians in charge have gone mad. A book could be written on this subject there is so much out there to support that point. I cover just a few items which makes it very clear just how entrenched their madness is these days and how much jeopardy Joe and Jane investor are in as far as their net worth is concerned. It could evaporate overnight in tsuanami-like fashion at any time this year.

The Washington folks and Bush Administration are petrified of allowing the truth to be told about how the US economy is really faring and what the real inflation picture is. Thus they spin and lie.

For example, the trade deficit announced Friday, over $58 billion and the second highest on record, was horrendous. However, it would have been much worse had they not fudged the numbers (fibbed about them) as pointed out by Houston’s Dan Norcini. Some follow up from yet another Café member on what Dan brought to our attention Friday:

Bill,
Saw the info Dan relayed about the government's trade numbers on average monthly crude oil prices and couldn't believe what the government published and how far out of line they are from the actuals.

In the table below are the government's bizarre numbers reported in Midas along with the actual average monthly price of crude oil (cash), based upon the daily close. As you can see there is a substantial difference.

[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2005/Midas/Midas0313CrudeOil.gif]

According to the table, the government's crude numbers are understated by almost 25%.

To put this in the proper perspective, this is the equivalent of only 3 months of data reported in a 4 month period, or 9 months of data reported in a 12 month period. This severe understatement certainly isn't a clerical error.

If anyone knows the crude oil component for the trade figures, they may be able to calculate a more accurate number.

However, if the monthly average price is this far out of line, the other numbers which go into the calculation are probably out of line as well. How long has this been going on?

Hope this sheds some additional light on top of Dan's initial beam.

All the best,
Raymond
RGreen@ilnk.com

Over and over again, MIDAS has presented specific detail from the likes of Bill King of The King Report and others how the CPI is way understated and how US official economic statistics have been reduced to spin and propaganda. The latest US trade number is a perfect example of the deception.

Peter R explains in somewhat humorous fashion what they are doing:

Here's a concept for how statisticians can monkey around with oil prices. One of the classic examples used to justify hedonistic adjustment is that if beef goes up in price, consumers will substitute chicken or pork, thus the cost has not really risen (and there is no inflation). How about substituting lower crude or fuel grades when oil
prices move up? Now it is possible that some motorists are using lower octane gasoline to save money, but would you like to fly in a plane burning diesel instead of aviation grade fuel? The whole thing is ridiculous. When the bubble bursts I hope someone fires all the statistics massagers in Washington. We will never be safe until those stables have been swept clean.

Best wishes,
Peter R.

Let us not forget what Rob Kirby brought to our intention re the bogus US jobs report – the one which juiced US stock market after Wall Street spun the 260,000+ gain in jobs as US economy friendly and stock market bullish. The real story from Rob (see Send In The Clowns in the Little Bear Table Library):

According to the BLS, 11/12ths of this increase was factored into Feb. numbers [186,000]. So folks, on my planet we back 186,000 out of the published 262,000 published number and we now have a grand total of 76,000 new jobs. But we are not done yet. The BLS uses another hedonic measure called the birth/death model. As you can see here, an additional 100,000 jobs were added to the headline number published. So backing this number out of 76k and we actually lost 24,000 jobs without the use of hedonics:

See: http://www.bls.gov/web/cesbd.htm and http://www.bls.gov/web/cesbmart.htm#2
***

Thus, in a one week period the US Government has delivered at least two misleading reports to the investing public. All of this is disingenuous to put it mildly. Yet, mild is the right word compared to what the Orwellians are doing with the gold price.

As we all know, the greatest deception of all is the blatantly outrageous manipulation of the gold price. It is so obvious these days, it is embarrassing our critics who remain silent no matter what we say. They don’t know how to counter the truth which of late has to be apparent to even a high school student.

Over the years GATA has received many queries as to the motive of The Gold Cartel to rig the gold market and of their efforts to suppress the price by so many hundreds of dollars per ounce. One of Wall Street’s and CNBC’s most visible cheerleaders provided a VERY revealing answer years ago:

March 2001 LAWRENCE KUDLOW: THE INTERVIEW
Republished from The American Spectator
On: http://www.kudlow.com/pdfs/American%20Spectator.pdf

TAS: But is Greenspan still the best Fed chairman in history?

Kudlow: You know, in his own clumsy way Paul Volcker may be the best Fed chairman in history. He's an odd character--by no means a supply-sider. By and large he didn't like Reagan's tax cuts. But he took the inflation rate from fifteen and brought it down to two, roughly between 1980 and 1986. You have to say that was the most extraordinary achievement in the Fed's history.

Alan took the inflation rate from four or five to two. That is a fine achievement, but not quite the same. I was on a panel with Volcker the other day. He's a very eccentric man, very dogmatic. But in his own way, brilliant. Remember, he was around when the dollar was linked to gold. He was in the Treasury Department in the '50s. He's a relic of the past. You know what? He gave us an antiquated monetary policy. And that's what was needed. He took the gold price down from $800 to $300 an ounce.

TAS: You are still largely a gold guy?

Kudlow: Yes. It provides important information about inflation.

TAS: But is gold really relevant, with all of these currencies trading against each other? We have wonderful barometers. Why still gold?

Kudlow: It has not failed me. When gold is low, inflation is low. In 1999 and 2000 when Greenspan was wrongly obsessing over inflation, I just kept saying wake me when gold hits $300. Sure, the gold bugs are gone, the investors. But I don't want gold to be a hot investment. The minute it is, I know the rest of the story is going to fall apart.

-END-

Does that say it all, or what!

Some more input from Dan on the CRB/gold relationship, which reveals gold is at least $200 undervalued because of the rigging when compared to the historic CRB/gold relationship:

Hey Bill:
Just looking at the chart I made up the other day comparing the CRB index to the spot gold price.

I made another that allows me to have more versatility. I am sending you both of them to look at.

Take a look at the top chart I created using Metastock. If you notice I drew two vertical parallel lines that intersect the CRB index when it is AT or ABOVE the current level where it closed today. It creates a sort of rectangular area. If you follow the lines up they will intersect the closing monthly spot gold price. Look at how obvious this makes what has happened to gold appear.

Gonna turn in and finally get some rest after a long week but I wanted to get this up your way to let you see it and get even more worked up!
See ya pal,
Dan

[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2005/Midas/Midas0313CRB.gif]

[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2005/Midas/Midas0313SpotGold.gif]

Now, to let you in on yet another coming GATA BOMBSHELL. This past year has been something else as far as GATA’s soaring credibility is concerned. It has been bing, bing, bing – boom, boom, boom:

*Oleg V. Mozhayskov, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, bluntly brought GATA to the attention of the mainstream gold world. Mozhayskov delivered the keynote address at the London Bullion Dealers Conference in Moscow on June 4th 2004. His speech was delivered in Russian. The only words he mentioned in English were Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (or GATA).

* Last August Sprott Asset Management in Toronto released its own publication, "Not Free, Not Fair: The Long-Term Manipulation of the Gold Price," confirming GATA's work.

*Then just two weeks ago Eckart Woertz, vice president of CFC Securities in Dubai, for the Gulf Research Center released a study, "The Role of Gold in the Unified Gulf Cooperation Council Currency." One of the major features of this study was that GATA’s assertions are correct.

Now we have a fourth independent confirmation of all our hard work – one which blows the most noted gold establishment organizations out of the water. Frank Veneroso, who calls ‘em like he sees ‘em, has written an expose for Gold Newsletter, published by Brien Lundin of Jefferson Financial Inc. "Gold Newsletter stands as the oldest and most respected precious metals and mining stock advisory in the world."

http://www.goldnewsletter.com/

Brien also runs the New Orleans Investment Conference, which is in its fourth decade of excellence:

http://www.neworleansconference.com/event/index.htm

GATA’s high command usually attends this conference and we intend to do so again this year. Frank should be there too. Last year 100 people, including some notables in the gold industry, attended our luncheon at the conclusion of the conference. Please keep this superb outing in mind for the end of October as GATA should be on some roll following our own conference in Dawson City the Yukon in early August.

MIDAS and GATA hope to be able to present Frank’s report to you in the not too distant future. It ought to turn the gold world upside down as Frank rips apart the World Gold Council and Gold Field Mineral Services credibility when it comes to their supply/demand work, the key to the gold price. Two quotes from Frank’s brilliant effort:

"We believe that fabricated demand and bar hoarding in the gold market has exceeded mine and scrap supply by a much larger margin than is reflected in the Gold Fields Mineral Services official supply/demand balances."

"The GFMS estimates of gold demand are so removed from historical trends and current market reports that they have become ludicrous. In a sense, with their recent statistical shenanigans, GFMS has now fully discredited itself."

In other words, GFMS (backed by The World Gold Council) is knowingly putting out bogus numbers to deceive the investing world. Frank has them dead to rights in a blatant fraud.

Quite frankly (no pun intended), this is what I have been saying from a visceral sense for years now. GFMS has understated gold demand for a long time to hide the surreptitious central bank gold flowing into the market in the form of loans and swaps to artificially suppress the price. The Gold Cartel and US have orchestrated this scheme so aggressively, the central banks have only half the gold in their vaults they say they do and:

*Are petrified of being found out.
*Scouring the world to secure more supply to meet surging demand as their available supply is running out. This is what the IMF gold sale flap is all about.

The good news is The Gold Cartel has major league problems as the valiant Ed Steer points out in his scintillating, "Call To Arms," now up at The Matisse Table:

"However, in the last few years, the "money trusts," as William Jennings Bryan called them, are starting to have a few problems, the biggest one is that world-wide physical demand for both gold and silver is eating them alive. Adding to their woes have been national and international reports from highly credible individuals and groups outlining how the Western banking system in general and the United States financial system in particular have been intervening against the free-market prices of gold and silver."

The deception emanating from The Gold Cartel and Washington is almost unfathomable for what it is leading to. What is so horrifying is the Orwellians are so frenzied and backed up into a corner, they are taking America to a very dark place. I will have more on this tomorrow. These severely misguided (to be gentle) people are like heroin addicts with an addiction which is growing exponentially. It’s so egregiously glaring that our little band, the GATA ARMY, has them caught dead to rights.

What is so sad and will be so tragic is almost no one in the US cares. Either that or they are complicit in the deception. Certainly the most unconscionable is the US financial press, especially as far as GATA is concerned. How can the American public learn what is really going on if people like us are not allowed to even present what we have discovered and can back up with evidence and prestigious acknowledgements from all over the world?

The tragedy part will be when this all blows up and US stock and real estate prices collapse. Then the fury will be everywhere. "How could this have happened," the American public will cry out. Too late. Money gone.

I have repeated my angst/disgust and thoughts on this matter often, including my prediction that when this scandal breaks it will dwarf Watergate. Not only will the US financial and real estate market be in shambles, but it will make a mockery of US foreign policy as far as Africa and the poor in other continents are concerned.

This now takes us full circle to the proposed IMF gold sale plan to be presented next month. As you well know this plan is championed by Gold Cartel sycophant Gordon Brown of England and tolerated by South African traitor Trevor Manuel. As recently brought to your attention, even talk of these sales is affecting the price of gold and South Africa’s WORKERS. The devious Brown and Manuel continue to proceed even though today’s gold prices ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH OR HIGH ENOUGH to seriously help the economy and the poor of South Africa:

Bill,
Here is an excerpt regarding job losses in South Africa’s gold mining industry from January 2003 to June 2004 during which time the Rand price of gold lost 25%.

In a couple of years we will have a benchmark for how many jobs have been missing from the African Gold mining industry for decades as Central Banks leased out their gold to contain the price rise.

Regards,
Dave

" South Africa's fabled gold-mining industry lost 11,000 jobs from January 2003 to June 2004, in part because income from its dollar-denominated exports fell sharply. Botswana's budget tipped from a surplus to a $325 million deficit last year as its dollar income from diamond sales was diluted by a 10 percent rise in its currency, the pula.

All these nations, and nearby Namibia, share a common problem: their currencies are pegged one-to-one to South Africa's rand, which has recorded a big rise against the dollar (Botswana's pula is pegged to a basket of currencies dominated by the rand.) The euro has risen 52 percent against the dollar since February 2002, but the rand, driven by a boom in commodities like gold, has nearly doubled in value.

"The weak dollar is bad economic news for countries that are not on a dollar-parity system," said Anthony Twine, a senior economist at Econometrix, a Johannesburg consultant. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03…ldbusiness/12africa.html?

-END-

Each miner supports 10 to 12 others according to Bheki Sibiya, the chairman of South African Airways in 2001. This does not include the MANY thousands of black miners who cannot get work because of the low gold price.

GATA is fighting the good fight to make things right. We need your help and we need it now. Please respond to Ed Steer’s CALL TO ARMS. This is your opportunity to be a part of history. BE THERE to tell your kids and grandkids you knew what was going on and did something about it.

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS

Appendix

Rich is SO RIGHT:

Bill,
Ed Steer's "Call to Arms" letter is concise, intelligent, and powerful. It is an outstanding expression of our plight. My own letter, which was referenced in Midas, was sent to a dozen companies weeks ago, and not one has responded with even a courtesy acknowledgement. It is a pathetic situation and our efforts through GATA could not be more betrayed and unappreciated. Perhaps employing Ed's excellent message will have a better outcome.

My personal disgust with the entire precious metals industry, as an investment vehicle, is at an all time high. In my own letter, I compared the precious metals sectors dismal share performance with other commodity shares, such as: oil, natural gas, iron ore, copper, uranium, and coal, as a means of indicating to these senior executives that eventually all investors will be forced to exit this industry, as a practical matter, in order to pursue better investments. Accordingly, even as a firm believer, it is becoming more and more difficult for me to justify my own long positions in this industry, which has been a mediocre performer for at least fifteen months. Contrarily, my other hard asset investments have surpassed expectations.

This comparative analogy of mine hoped to serve as both a wake-up call and encouragement to support GATA's Gold Rush 21. Unfortunately, it fell upon deaf ears. Clearly, these senior executives are content with dismal share performance and price fixing of their commodity, as long as they continue to reap the benefits of their generous salaries and other perks.

Their failure to respond by email with a simple courtesy acknowledgement is incredulous, and indicates to me that they are only concerned with the Wall Street, money manager types. They are content to remain tacit and allow GATA to do their heavy lifting. Accordingly, they do not deserve either the shareholders' loyalty or GATA's tireless efforts to correct this wrong, as there is nothing more pathetic then those who will not help themselves.

Concomitantly, my past formal complaints to Attorney General Elliott Spitzer, Governor Pataki, Senators' Clinton and Schumer, and the CFTC about naked shorting and price fixing on the COMEX, which were made through formal letters emailed about a year ago, were met with the same lack of response or stonewalling. Apparently, elected officials, regulatory authorities, and senior executives all share the same arrogant lack of accountability to the common shareholder.

Unfortunately, I believe that in this era of litigation, the only action these useless cowards will understand is a shareholders lawsuit. I believe there is a basis for such a course of action, because their continual failure to formally protest the blatant price fixing, which has been substantiated by GATA to an extremely high legal standard, makes them complicit through negligent retention. At some point there is an industry standard for expectations, which defines reasonable action versus negligence and whether prudent behavior was undertaken. Examples abound in which agricultural producers protested the imposition of government imposed tariffs by no longer producing under the existing price structure. Consequently, the prices skyrocketed in response to the diminished supply, and the tariffs were either lifted or the increased price was met. That standard is prevalent in a free market, free enterprise environment and represents anticipated cost reward behavior. The precious metals industry has been hit over the head with cold, hard, verifiable evidence, which substantiates that price fixing of their product exists; yet, they fail to act in a manner commensurate to a producer. Their inaction is contrary to usual free enterprise expectations. It is my premise that under such circumstances, these companies have an obligation to their shareholders to initiate at least a formal inquiry to the appropriate governing authority. Failing to do so, on behalf of shareholders grievances, should make them negligent. Negligence is the foundation for monetary damage awards. Their inept, impotence is an exact opposite to the tireless, extraordinary, efforts of GATA to end this fraud against shareholders.

Their continual inaction contradicts any minimal standard of due diligence and warrants legal retaliation by shareholders. A legal notice of intent will force them to respond, even if only through their legal counsel. If the Gold Rush 21 opportunity presently being offered is not responded to, and shareholders letters are continually ignored; then I believe our next course of action as shareholders must be in the courts.

Regards,
Rich Caccavale

MIDAS: Rich has it nailed. More on this tomorrow.

***

This article on a different industry in sub-Saharan Africa reveals the cost pressures on many of their industries due to the rise in the rand price. It will give you some idea what a number of the South African gold producers are going through. For South Africa’s own finance minister to acquiesce to The Gold Cartel ought to stir the ZULUS into a revolt.

Dollar's Fall Silences Africa's Garment Factories
Published: March 12, 2005

(Page 2 of 2)

In places like Lesotho, a nation of 1.8 million that is already wrestling with AIDS and drought, the news is perhaps most wrenching. Lesotho's garment industry - and therefore its manufacturing base - rests on the faltering premise that Americans will buy all the clothes that it can sew.

That premise originates in a law, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which Congress enacted in 2000 in an effort to help sub-Saharan nations lift themselves from poverty. Nations meeting the law's criteria, which range from political pluralism to support for free markets, are allowed to export any of 1,600 products to the United States duty-free.

With a progressive government and extremely low tax rates, Lesotho was one of the biggest winners: clothing exports to the United States ballooned to $500 million last year, from just $100 million in 2001 - nearly a third of all clothing exports by the 37 nations given duty-free status.

The textile boom was a salvation to Lesotho, which lost 60,000 jobs in the 1990's as South Africa reduced migrant labor at its gold and coal mines. Textile factory employment rose from 20,000 jobs before the law to more than 50,000 last year.

When the dollar was more robust, some companies from Taiwan built projects - modern, efficient factories and a mill to produce denim fabric - that is vital to the industry's long-term health. By late 2007, garment makers must make or buy their fabrics in sub-Saharan Africa or lose their right to ship goods duty-free to the United States.

That denim mill probably assures that Lesotho's blue-jeans makers, who turn out 26 million pairs a year, will survive in some form. But the dollar's slide has damped prospects for a knitted-fabric mill.

In Maputsoe, a dog-eared settlement of about 10,000, two of nine garment factories closed in December and January, leaving their workers stunned and, often, penniless.

Itumeleng Khasane was in her fourth month of sewing Old Navy T-shirts at TW Garments in Maputsoe when she went to collect her paycheck on Dec. 17 during the factory's Christmas break. At her last payday in mid-November, it was clear that the factory was struggling: she received only about $54, half the wages due for a month's work.

But when she arrived at the factory that day, she said recently, nobody was there. "We didn't get our money," she said. "We didn't get a salary; we didn't get a holiday bonus; we didn't get a termination payment."

More recently, Ms. Khasane was standing in a crowd of women, along with a few men, outside Johnson Work Wear, a uniform maker that hired a handful of workers in January. It was, they said, their only prospect for another job. Many had arrived at dawn, carrying umbrellas to ward off the midday sun.

At 21, with a seventh-grade education, Ms. Khasane had been the sole wage-earner for a family of five - two sisters, a brother and her jobless father. Her mother died in 2002 at age 38. The family gets by now on handouts.

The second Maputsoe factory, Vogue Landmark Garments, shut down even more unexpectedly; workers say there was no hint of financial problems until they returned after the holiday break on Jan. 12 and found the doors locked.

Masello Motsosi, a 27-year-old sewing machine repairman, was supporting his wife and two boys, his parents and his in-laws on his $135-a-month salary. He used his last savings in January to pay the boys' school fees. "Now, there's nothing," he said.

Lesotho garment factories have closed before, and been snapped up quickly by other producers. But with the American market increasingly unprofitable, few expect that to happen this time. Nor is it easy to diversify away from United States buyers: Canada and Australia, among others, offer American-style tariff breaks, but their markets are too small to replace American orders. And the Chinese, with lower shipping costs and quicker turnaround times, loom ever larger as a competitor.

In response, the nation's biggest garment makers are slashing costs - and praying for an exchange-rate turnaround. "Denim isn't profitable right now," said Oliver Li, the manager of the Global Textiles factory owned by the Nien Hsing Textile Company. It is one of three factories that still churn out up to 70,000 pairs of jeans daily.

"It's not only the appreciation of the rand, but other things like electricity and water," Mr. Li said. "They're all more expensive than before because we pay for them with our dollar income."

At its three factories in Maseru, the Taiwan-based Nien Hsing has dimmed lights, switched from cellphones to two-way radios for communications between plants and even told its staff to carpool to save gasoline.

Not long ago, Lesotho government officials and textile factory managers blitzed Congress, the White House, major retailers in New York and San Francisco and a trade show in Las Vegas with a well-honed argument: Lesotho may not always be cheapest, but it is dependable, honest and squeaky clean on human rights and sweatshop issues that have embarrassed American retailers like Nike in the past.

That, the nation's trade minister, Mpho Malie, says bluntly, may not always be true of certain competitors. "We're not only talking about the quality of garments, but also the quality of workers' conditions on the factory floors - labor issues, environmental issues," he said in an interview in his Maseru office. "Because in the future, a client will come to you and say, Where are you sourcing from, and what are you doing about the welfare of the people you are sourcing from?"

That argument seems to have won over some of the more socially conscious garment buyers in the United States, like Levi Strauss and Gap, which have maintained or increased their orders here.

Whether it will play with mainstream American retailers for whom price is the bottom line is more problematic. "As a country, we think that we are doing something right," Mr. Malie said. "We're saying that tomorrow, there will be questionable things about China - things that are not only a government question, but that your consumers in the long run are going to question."

He said that when the honeymoon with Chinese suppliers was over, "those questions will have to be answered."

Glaubt ihr das der Goldpreis bald wieder ein Tief nach unten haben wird so wie vor 6 wochen?

Ich gehe davon aus, dass wir uns trotz der erfreulichen Entwicklung der letzten 2 Wochen immer noch in einer Kosolidierungsphase befinden die bis Ende April bzw. Ende Mai ausgestanden sein sollte. Diese Annahme schließt einen möglichen Rücksetzer beim Gold Bugs-Index (HUI) bis an die 200 und evtl. sogar darunter ein.

Nach Beendigung der Konsolidierung sollte die Hausse der Gold-Aktien dann ab Mai/Juni wieder an Dynamik gewinnen.
Meine unmassgeliche Prognose lautet, dass der HUI spätestens im Verlauf der Sommermonate ein neues Allzeithoch markiert und nach Durchbruch des charttechnischen Widerstandes bei 257 Punkten in der zweiten Jahreshälfte die 300er-Marke ins Visier nimmt. Ich denke, dass die nächsten zwei Monate eine letzte Gelegenheit darstellen sich auf aktuellem Niveau nochmals relativ günstig einzudecken bzw. den einen oder anderen Wert nachzukaufen.

Eine schöne Arbeitswoche wünsche ich allen.

March 14 – Gold $440.40 down $5.10 – Silver $7.36 down 15 cents

GATA On A Roll – Why It Is So Important To You And Other Gold Investors

Don't duck the most difficult problems. That just insures that the hardest part will be left when you're most tired. Get the big one done - it's downhill from then on ... Norman Vincent Peale
GO GATA!!!
There is so much happening out there in terms of our gold world it is hard to know where to start. Might as well begin by commenting on the same crap The Gold Cartel is throwing our way and repeat myself in the process – which is what I do over and over because the cabal keeps repeating their same manipulation modus operandi.

As brought to your attention a zillion times, The Gold Cartel caps gold on dollar weakness. In doing so they recruit other bullion banks on their side on the way up as these banks want to trade with the US Government and their surrogate trading partners in The Gold Cartel.